Terrorism Legislations Passed

The two bills related to terrorism, introduced by the UPA, was cleared by the parliament after all the opposition parties pledged to support the measures. These two pieces of legislation include:

- National Investigative Agency (NIA) Bill
- Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Ammendment Bill

The NIA Bill provides for setting up an agency at the Central level with powers to probe terrorism and other crimes having national ramifications. The agency will be established in a "concurrent jurisdictions" framework with provisions for taking up specific cases under specific Acts for investigation. It also envisages provisions for setting up of Special Courts to try terror-related cases. The agency will deal with all ramifications of terror including complex inter-state and international linkages and possible connections with other criminal activities such as drugs and arms smuggling, transfer and circulation of fake currency and infiltration across national boundaries. It also includes a schedule of acts covering offences against the state, terrorism, atomic energy, hijacking, WMD, etc, all of which are already in the federal ambit, creating a clear division of center-state agency responsibilites. This however, does not preclude agencies working together at different levels and at different times as required by a situation.

The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Ammendment Bill that seeks to ammend the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA), aims at strengthening the arrangements for speedy investigation, prosecution and trial of cases related to terrorism while at the same time guarding against any possible misuse of such provisions. The earlier ammendments to the UAPA to facilitate terror related investigation do not take into consideration various new facets of terrorism and terrorist activities including financing of terrorism, recruiting persons for terrorist acts and for organizing camps to impart training in terrorism.

The idea of a federal agency to deal with grave offences which have interstate or nationwide ramifications had been mooted in the Parliament in 2001. It has taken several terrorist attacks, three different committee reports and seven years since to pass the bill to constitute the NIA. Though a small step in the right direction, these focus on investigation and prosecution AFTER the acts of terror are committed - an element of PURSUE. There is no word yet on the other three aspects of countering terror - PREPARE, PREVENT or PROTECT - especially the mechanism to integrate the functioning of various existing agencies at the center and from the central level, down to the regional and local levels. The recent ruling by the Bombay High Court to constitute an interim committee headed by a retired supreme court judge to recommend measures to the government with a view to prevent recurrence of last month's terror attacks in the city is significant as for the first time, it includes, besides officials from the police, bureaucracy and the judiciary, eminent citizens from different walks of life in Mumbai. Whether other cities follow the precedence set by Mumbai is yet to be seen. What is however apparent is the fact that citizens councils will increasingly provide a way for capable individuals to participate and contribute to the finding solutions to challenges facing society and to hold those in elected office accountable for their actions.